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Mock Rebecca Black All You Want, She's Laughing To The Bank

Rebecca Black has a hit song. The 13-year-old singer’s video for her song “Friday,” which has quickly become the fascination of the Internet, is a smashing success despite the fact that it owes its meteoric rise to, well, mediocrity. Put more bluntly, the video has become the laughingstock of millions, who have latched on to its simplistic lyrics and low-price polish to push it into the public consciousness. Despite the movement’s dubious beginnings, though, Black may be the one laughing now.

The “Friday” video — which was uploaded to YouTube on February 10th — didn’t get much traction until early last week, when it suddenly caught a web tailwind. Black’s name trended on twitter and the video spiraled to go viral. It now has over 30 million views.

So is it true that any press is good press? For the young singer, who has appeared gracious and composed in her few media appearances, that axiom seems to hold true. And her decision to keep the video online, despite being given the opportunity by the song’s producers to take the video down when the comments started to turn nasty, may end up to be a boon to her college fund.

Black’s tune comes courtesy of Ark Music Factory, a so called record label that churns out tween pop for a couple thousand bucks a tune. Co-founded by Patrice Wilson and Clarence Jey, the L.A. based company courts young teenage singers and “signs” them to short, vanity recording projects. Jey reportedly is the lyrical genius behind “Friday.” According to The Daily Beast, Black’s mother forked over $2,000 for two songs written by Ark Music Factory’s team and one video, the now infamous “Friday.”

It would seem that the investment paid off, many times over. Although the YouTube/Google party line on video ad revenue is vague (“There are no guarantees under the YouTube Partner agreement about how much you will be paid.”) some digging turns up speculation on potential profits. TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld reported today on Google and YouTube’s revenue figures. Looking at 2010’s actual numbers, the site makes about $1 per thousand page views. For videos running ads as part of the revenue sharing program, that revenue is then split between YouTube and the content creator. Content creators, or partners, take 68% of the profit. At 30,000,000 views, that lands Black and Ark Music Factory $20,000 – a 1000% return on investment. That number matches the figure reported by Damian Kulash Jr., the lead singer of indie pop band OK Go, who have made a name for themselves via viral videos.

The revenue doesn’t stop there, though. Where Google has had a notoriously tough time monetizing YouTube content, Apple’s iTunes has had significantly fewer problems. Since hitting the online music store last Monday, “Friday” has amassed a staggering number of downloads, reportedly topping 2 million; the song currently sits at #45 on the iTunes Top Singles chart. According to 101 Distribution, an independent music distributor, iTunes pays out $.70 per single download in the United States. That’s a much juicier check for Black and Ark Music Factory; even if the numbers are exaggerated, the intake from “Friday” could top $1 million. What’s more, Black is planning to release an acoustic version of the song to disprove speculation that her voice is reliant on AutoTune. Cha-ching! Updated 3/23: The original estimate of 2 million, taken from Black’s interview on Good Morning America, seems to have been referring to video views rather than digital downloads. Billboard is reporting the song’s sales to be 37,000 in its first week.

According to The Daily Beast, Black plans to donate a portion of her profits to “Japan relief organizations and school arts programs.”

Like it or not, there’s probably more to come from Rebecca Black and Ark Music Factory. As I type, another Ark Music product, Alana Lee, is racking up views by the tens of thousands on her video “Butterflies,” likely basking in the afterglow of Rebecca Black. Fun, fun, fun indeed.

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“Reportedly topping 2 million” downloads? Not likely. “Right Round” by Flo Rida holds the record for most downloads in a single week with 636,000 units sold. For Rebecca Black to shatter this record by more than tripling it would be, safe to say, unlikely – especially since she never even hit the top 15 on the iTunes charts, which means that at least 15 other songs must have sold more than she did.

A good point, Hughster, thanks for the stat context. I updated with a note. Don’t forget about other retailers though. “Friday” is currently #1 in Amazon’s Children’s Music department and has been in Amazon’s top 100 Paid MP3 downloads for 5 days.

A large part of whether or not she will get any money depends upon ownership of the song. Without knowing the details of her deal with Ark, it is unlikely a vanity label that charges (!) would hand over any ownership on the label or publishing side (especially since she didn’t have a hand in writing the song).

Again, no inside knowledge of whatever her mother signed when they were given the song to sing but I would be incredibly surprised if she saw more than 20% over her initial investment.

Shame on you. The song and production and the whole deal is nothing short of pathetic and that it “makes money” or can monetize a google ad is absolutely no reason for praise on any level. It’s masturbatory and weak.

Definitely a good point. I doubt Ark Music Factory will reveal the guts of the deal she signed, but I’d be surprised if it weren’t taking a very hefty chunk of the profits. Since Black didn’t write the song herself, I’d say it’s unlikely she has a significant share of the royalty money. Still, even 5% of the eventual profits wouldn’t be too shabby for an investment of $2000!

It’s not clear where Barth even got the “reportedly 2 million” figure from. (There’s no link.) Just as startling to me, Barth refers to revenue sharing for “videos running ads,” links to the video (which includes no ad), and assumes somehow that nevertheless Youtube is paying the video’s creators. Also, none of us have seen the details of Black’s contract, and it’s possible that she has to split performer royalties with Jey. Plus, record labels (which Ark, uh, sorta is) normally keep 90% of revenue. It would be great for Forbes to write about the economics of the music industry, but I don’t think Chris Barth is the guy to do it.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Ark Music Factory is run by geniuses. Evil geniuses, but geniuses nonetheless. Step one: Create templates for songs and videos that not-so-carefully rip off everything going on in tween pop at the moment. Step two: Sell their services to tween girls who have indulging parents who know nothing about the music biz, and are happening to fork over a few thou to make their child a “star.” Step three: Profit!

As awful as “Friday” is, it’s not far removed from what my kids see on the Disney Channel. Heck, at least so far, Ark Factory doesn’t have to deal with young girl stars struck with “exhaustion.”

About this “2 million downloads” claim. Well done for correcting your article. I feel it useful to point out where this claim came from: the Good Morning America interviewer on 18th March who said the song “went up two million downloads last night alone.” It seems obvious she made an unwise choice of words and meant “views” not “downloads”. Sadly now your “millionaire” calculations are being repeated in other places as fact.

When writing for a respected publication such as Forbes, even on the “blogs” section, accuracy and fact checking is crucial.

Hey Nick – the original (and apparently erroneous) 2 million figure came from Good Morning America’s Andrea Canning, with whom Black did her lone media interview. Since it is incorrect — Canning likely meant views, not downloads — I have corrected my post above.

As for the ads, the YouTube video is absolutely running advertisements. They start running about 12 or 13 seconds into the video.

With regards to Black’s contract, you are absolutely right. As mentioned above, Ark Music Factory is likely taking a large cut of the revenue; any supposition that Black herself will become a millionaire is almost certainly incorrect.